PCMag has covered Microsoft’s Windows operating system from its first iteration in 1985 right up to the current, heady days of Windows 11. Before Windows, we used and wrote about its predecessor, MS-DOS (Disk Operating System), without which the PC revolution would never have taken place. Indeed, early mentions of Windows in PC Magazine refer to it as a “DOS extension from Microsoft.”
When I began working at PCMag in 1987, DOS was still king, having pretty much kicked CP/M to the curb. DOS itself had been getting increasingly (if awkwardly) graphic, using character dots to create images and offering more colors than drab blue-gray text on black. At the time, I was a proofreader at the magazine. I didn’t really think much about Windows until around version 3.0.
The Origins of Windows
Of course, Microsoft had seen what Apple was doing with the graphical user interface (GUI) of its early computers, starting with the Apple Lisa. The Lisa debuted in 1983, inspired by work at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). The company followed it up with its first successful GUI machine, the Macintosh, a year later. Third-party GUIs became a big topic for DOS in the mid and late 1980s, albeit slowly. Windows started out as just another one of those graphical shells that ran on top of DOS.
In PC Magazine’s Best of 1985 article, we said, “Most industry watchers declared Microsoft Windows stillborn the day IBM rolled out TopView [a 1985 flash in the pan].” Shows what industry watchers know. The article continued, “Like the host who continues to hang decorations for a party nobody plans to attend, Microsoft has continued development work in a way that seemed stubbornly futile.” Finally, though, we admitted that improved graphics hardware and compelling application titles brought Windows back into relevance: “After an hour with In-a-vision [the first native application to be offered for Windows], even the most devoted Macintosh user will be a convert.”
The launch of Windows 1.0 was nowhere near as big a deal as the launch of the now-forgotten IBM Personal System/2 desktop line. (You can still find working PS/2 computers on eBay for under $200.) The original price was $2,295, and you could pay over $10,000 for the higher-end models! The machines featured the proprietary Micro Channel Architecture expansion bus (now also largely forgotten). As it turned out, IBM’s plan to recapture the PC market from cheaper clone makers by including proprietary BIOS, expansion bus, and other technologies backfired big-time.
The first mention of Microsoft Windows on the cover of PC Magazine was in 1986 (left), but it didn’t get top billing until 1991 (middle); the first cover-story review was for Windows 3.1 in 1992 (right) (Credit: PCMag)
Even nearly four years after Windows’s 1985 launch, it was just another entry in our September 12, 1989 issue’s face-off of GUI competitors, including DeskMate, GEM (possibly the highest-profile of the lot), and HP NewWave. IBM’s TopView actually made the cover in April 1985, while Windows didn’t receive that honor until 1991. Even Microsoft Excel merited a PC Magazine cover story in 1987 before Windows ever did.
The first mention of Microsoft Windows on the cover was for a February 25, 1986 roundup of alternative operating environments for DOS in a story titled “Window Wars!” It covered such options as DESQview, GEM Desktop, and TopView, as well as Windows 1.0. Starting with Windows 3.1 in 1992, every major Windows version made the cover, though DOS 6 was still there the following year.
Let’s not forget a rival operating system from IBM called OS/2, which appeared in 1987 and was considered superior to both DOS and Windows by most tech experts. But such is the power of market popularity over technical superiority.
Windows Starts Winning
The first really big splash Microsoft’s OS made came a full 10 years after its debut, with Windows 95 (codenamed “Chicago”). This was a huge deal accompanied by a worldwide publicity campaign. You can watch the 90-minute Win 95 launch event, hosted by Jay Leno, on YouTube.
This version introduced the Start button (commercials featured The Rolling Stones tune “Start Me Up”), Plug and Play (PnP), and much more, as you’ll see in the pictorial history below. It also spelled the end of an era for DOS, which until then had been a separately available operating system. Windows 95 appeared on the cover of PC Magazine no fewer than four times. It kicked off the basic look and feel of the OS that would last until Windows 8 in 2012.
Windows 95 made the cover of PC Magazine four times, and every big release was a cover story thereafter (Credit: PCMag)
Windows 95 also implemented major changes to the operating system core, including a move from 16-bit to 32-bit architecture and preemptive multitasking. Of course, server versions of Windows were also in development. Windows NT remains a major milestone and the basis of most versions, even Windows 11, having replaced the underlying DOS core.
The Evolution of a Software Powerhouse
In the years that followed Windows 95 and its not-very-different successor, Windows 98, new releases tended to follow a rocky pattern based on public opinion:
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Windows 95/98—Good
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Windows Me—Bad
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Windows XP—Good; many users clung to it even through the dark days of Windows 8
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Windows Vista—Bad (though I dispute this; I found Vista one of the most stable versions ever. The complaints were mostly about hardware compatibility due to a move to a more secure driver model.)
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Windows 7—Good
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Windows 8—Disastrous (it nearly ended the OS, though it did add a few useful features)
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Windows 10—Good (and well-received)
With Windows 11, it seems like Microsoft is finally breaking that back-and-forth. In truth, the latest version is mostly a pretty shell on top of Windows 10, with appealing sounds, some new apps, and other conveniences. Though there are loud detractors lamenting the good old days of Windows 10 (as with every new version), Windows 11 debuted with positive reviews overall. PCMag lead hardware analyst Matthew Buzzi found that the newer OS slightly outperformed its predecessor. Many of the complaints center on increased hardware requirements, some of which, like the TPM requirement, bolster security.
I didn’t start reviewing Windows until Windows 7 in 2009. It, and the next two releases, involved traveling to Los Angeles and Seattle to be pre-briefed. Windows 7 turned out to be the last cover story ever for the print version of PC Magazine in January 2009. After that, PCMag became online-only, which was one of our best business decisions—not only because that was the direction the world was heading but also because the price of paper soon skyrocketed.
Windows 7 headlined PC Mag’s last print cover in 2009 (left), and more recent versions of the OS starred in our digital editions (Credit: PCMag)
Windows 8 was the most disastrous release in franchise history, though it sounded great in pre-briefs: Windows would challenge the Apple iPad as a tablet OS while still running on desktops and laptops, and its app store would be a bonanza for developers! Scratch that. Though the 8.1 update fixed a lot, the company had to reverse course. Microsoft skipped version 9 entirely, needing to create more distance from the hateful 8. Even in the PCMag offices, I was the only one running Windows 8 for a few years and actually enjoyed using it after the Windows 8.1 update. I was mostly alone in that.
The familiar yet more modern Windows 10 reversed the platform’s downward course. Since then, there have been no more blockbuster launch events, as the software-as-a-service system has taken hold. Indeed, remarks from Microsoft execs made observers think there wouldn’t be any new versions after Windows 10. As such, Windows 11 was something of a surprise. It adds polish and modern style as well as some new tools and conveniences, but it doesn’t break with tradition dramatically.
Scroll through our visual history below to see how far Windows has come from its sketchy starts, stops, and restarts.
MS-DOS
MS-DOS (Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)
As PC Magazine described it in its February-March 1982 issue, “MS-DOS is a single-task microcomputer disk operating system for the Intel 8086 and 8008 microprocessors.”
With MS-DOS 2.0, Microsoft replaced “the traditional command-line-oriented shell with a visual shell that shows the user a menu of the most commonly executed applications and utilities,” we said at the time. DOS carried on for a few years after Windows arrived, and it formed the foundation for early versions of Windows.
Windows 1.0
Windows 1.0 Start Screen (Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)
The first version of Windows, 1.01, arrived in late 1985, but it wasn’t the only OS in town. “Window Wars!” screamed PC Magazine‘s February 1986 cover. We compared Redmond’s OS to DESQview, TopView, and GEM Desktop and admitted that the Mac made “the PC’s display look like a relic from the past.”
Windows 1.0 Desktop (Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)
Windows “puts a new face on DOS and uses DOS to do some work,” we said. Rather than using only a single command line on the screen, Windows “puts the entire screen to work passing information between you and the computer.” Applications included Paint, Calculator, Cardfile, Notepad, Terminal, and Write. One complaint about Windows 1.0 concerned the mouse (or “all-purpose pointing device,” as we called it in 1986), which was not yet a common, indispensable PC tool.
Windows 3.0
Windows 3.0 (Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)
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After an unsuccessful split version of Windows 2.0 (sold in both 286 and 386 iterations), Microsoft hit its stride with Windows 3.0 in 1990. “The most noticeable improvements to Windows 3.0 are its interface, sculpted buttons, and an iconic layout that makes it easier to execute commands and manage files,” we said in June 1990. “Using a file-folder visual motif, icons and applications are set up as members of common-sense categories.” Windows 3.1, introduced in 1992, added TrueType fonts, screen savers, Windows Media Player, and a sound recording app, while Windows 3.11 for Workgroups added integrated networking support.
Windows 95
Windows 95 (Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)
Windows 95 made the cover of PC Magazine in September 1995. Seventeen PC Labs analysts and technicians tested the software for 10 weeks to see whether it could be our readers’ next OS. “The Windows 95 interface offers a true desktop with icons for programs, documents, directories, and system components. Context menus, accessed by right-clicking, give you the relevant actions and properties for any object.”
“Friends” stars Jennifer Aniston and Matthew Perry even made a slick instructional video for it.
Windows 98
Windows 98 (Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)
Windows 98 arrived in 1998 and included a number of web-related features to take advantage of the internet explosion. It didn’t look a lot different from Windows 95, but it did include this sweet, Zen-like startup sound.
Windows 2000
Windows 2000 (Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)
Windows 2000 added support for layered windows and translucence. “Television does a great job of using fades and slides to give a context of where the new information is going to appear. Computers haven’t yet been able to incorporate these effects into the UI very effectively,” Microsoft said at the time. “Just think what a difference there is between the existing UI and the cool UI you constantly see in the movies. Layered windows give the product designers a lot of power to bring ‘cool’ UI closer to reality.”
Windows XP
Windows XP (Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)
“Windows XP is Microsoft’s latest—and dare we say greatest—operating system to date,” we said in 2001. “The most startling change” with XP was the revamped user interface: “Windows XP drastically reduces clutter on the desktop, Start menu, and taskbar. The new design is Microsoft’s effort to make Windows less confusing to beginners.”
Windows XP Start Menu (Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)
“The new two-column Start menu,” we added, “reduces the clutter that plagued earlier versions and highlights Microsoft’s software.”
Recommended by Our Editors
Windows Vista
Windows Vista Welcome Center (Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)
“Vista offers a lot of improvements over Windows XP, but most of them are conveniences rather than essentials,” PC Magazine concluded in 2007.
Vista’s “Flip 3D” view allowed for easy application-switching. Press Windows-Tab or click the “switch between windows” Quick Start icon, and open windows morphed into this perspective view. Rotating the mouse wheel spun the stack of windows, Rolodex-style. Vista’s live icons provided a preview of what was inside folders.
The Welcome Center appeared when you first booted. Above, you can see what it looked like on top of Vista’s Aurora wallpaper.
Windows 7
Windows 7 (Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)
“Microsoft’s new OS is a big improvement over Windows Vista, and because it’s based on the same underlying kernel code, there should be fewer compatibility headaches for those who make the switch,” we said in 2009. “Add to that a retooled taskbar, simpler home networking, faster startup, and more, and Windows 7 may succeed where Vista failed.”
Windows 7 included a big taskbar update for managing active apps and launching those that you used frequently. Vista had a thumbnail preview system, but Windows 7 added the full-screen transparency Aero Peek feature to reveal your desktop.
Windows 8
Windows 8 (Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)
Microsoft is the first to admit that it missed the boat when it came to mobile, and the company tried to make up for lost time with the touch-centric Windows 8. The operating system featured a dual interface, one with mobile-like apps and another more like the traditional Windows desktop.
Much to the chagrin of Windows traditionalists, the Start menu was nowhere to be found in Windows 8, replaced by Charms that slid out from the side. The Windows 8.1 upgrade addressed some of the shortcomings for desktop users, but by then, the version’s reputation as a loser was sealed.
Windows 10
Windows 10 (Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)
Redmond skipped Windows 9 and launched Windows 10 as its “most comprehensive platform ever.” The Start menu was back in a brilliant synthesis of tiles, buttons, and menu elements (see the video below). The release also added the Action Center and a highly functional taskbar. Check out a few other reasons that the OS made it onto more than a billion devices.
Windows 11
Windows 11 (Credit: Microsoft/PCMag)
After Windows 10’s software-as-a-service model made it seem as if there would be no more major OS versions—and there weren’t for six years—Windows 11 came as something of a surprise.
More of an interface redesign than a new operating system, Windows 11’s round-cornered windows and centered taskbar were arguably designed to stanch the trickling of market share to Chrome OS and macOS. Still, we really like it. For a full rundown, read our comprehensive Windows 11 review.
The Future: Copilot+ and Windows 12?
(Credit: Microsoft)
At this point, any talk about Windows 12 is pure speculation. The company hasn’t made any official announcements about it. At its Ignite 2022 conference, Microsoft observers saw what they thought to be a prototype for a new Windows version interface with a floating taskbar and a search bar on the top (see above). That generated a lot of talk about Windows 12 coming in 2024, which we now know to be false.
What we do know about the future of Windows is that it will be steeped in AI and Copilot. With the latest update to Windows 11, version 24H2, only Copilot+ PCs have all the interesting new features. These PCs include an NPU (neural processing unit) to perform local AI computation.
If I may speculate a bit, I expect future versions of Windows (whether it’s called Windows 12 or something else) will require an NPU and incorporate more and more Copilot AI. This will happen gradually, since the company won’t want another backlash like that against Windows 11 requiring a security chip. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadell has even said he considers Copilot the new Windows Start button. We’ll just have to wait to see how that all affects the visual identity of Windows.
About Michael Muchmore
Lead Software Analyst
